Overheard: the power of Frank Miller

It’s the end of summer and the students are back, and tonight packs of them are ranging up and down St-Laurent Blvd, making noise outside the cafes and bars. So are white tow trucks with the lights going on top of their cabs, because for some reason each truck has three yellow alarm lights planted up there in a row, like sirens. Either the sirens or the trucks’ horns are making a racket. I don’t know what any of this is about.

One bunch of kids just passed, maybe 20 in all, all of them wearing white t-shirts with something on them I can’t see. Girls mainly, but with the boys making the most noise and doing some chant leading.

They actually tried a call-and-response of “What is your profession?” The response wasn’t much, but the call was formidable: the boys put some air into it. Beats me what the response could have been: not “Spartans,” since no teams by that name are found around here. McGill’s football team is the Redmen, but now I say the hell w/ it. [ update, Actually the response in 300 is “warriors,” isn’t it? Maybe that’s what the kids tried to say. ]